Monday, January 21, 2008

Bush Bashing Down The Military Track

I can't believe this place! There is always something new and adventurous to do. Yesterday as we came out of the bush at top of Block Access Rd yesterday Hedley showed us the beginning of the Military Track that runs from there to Tirohanga - where I live - and before you know it he has organised us to run it the next day.

He described it as a 15km bush run on a largely cleared bench track. I haven't run this far since last year's Motu but thought I would give it a go. It started raining at 5.00pm and Hedley and Teleri and Karl turned up shortly after. We drove up in Hedley's van with his dog doing its share of the driving and then it turned the radio on.

Hedley, Karl and I started the track at 6.00pm while Teleri took the dogs for a run. The 'run' was awesome. Narrow bench track which was reasonably clear for the first 30mins and then was a bit of a bush bash and supplejack clamber for the next hour before we hit Tirohanga Rd and a haul into the wind and rain for 4k back home.

There was a bit of walking, scrambling and climbing as the track petered out in places but the rain and fading light made for a great adventure. As well, Karl and Hedley told hunting stories all the way through and pointed out signs of deer along the way. It was fun AND educational.

I feel like I've run a marathon but it was a great day to bring up 21 days in a row training!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It actually started bucketing down just before I left work at 5pm for Mauries place. Teleri had arranged to pick me up and take the dogs with us for a run. Karl showed up outside my work just after 5 and we dicussed the weather. We decided to drive out to Mauries and tell him the weather was too crappy for a bush run, and then we were going to give the dogs a run on the beach. I pulled up and went in to tell Maurie that it was off, but seeing him standing there in his running gear doing his warm up routine, I felt a pang of guilt and nodded my head in agreement when he said it would be a cool night for a run. I don't feel any guilt however for any misleading comments about the condition of the track.